This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, click the "Reprints" link at the bottom of any article.

February 12, 2013

4 Tricks for Better Seminar Invites

There are some fairly simple techniques for mastering this important advisor marketing skill

Author’s Note: As of this writing, seminar marketing is working exceptionally well … if you get the pieces working together. I call these pieces the “Seminar Success Zone.” The invitation is one piece. Please go to www.billgood.com/successzone. There you can listen to a conference call I did with an FA who raised $100 million in two years from seminar marketing.

A client sent me a seminar invitation and asked for a critique.

At best, it was awful. The worst was the title, which was undoubtedly a copyright violation.

Second worst: bullet points.

1) How a Seminar Invitation Works

When someone opens your envelope, they will first glance at the title. If it is boring, contains unfamiliar terminology, or otherwise fails to engage, the invitation is flying toward the waste can.

If the title is interesting, they will read the description, and then the bullet point.

The bullet points answer the question, “What will I learn from giving up two hours and missing the new episode of “CSI El Paso”?

Bullet points present the benefits someone expects to receive.

2) How to Write Bullet Points

Before I replied to my client, I posed the question: how do I teach him to write bullet points?

In 10 seconds or so I have found a book on the subject my client would be speaking on.

Behold! Benefits galore.

I emailed my client and told him: Read book reviews and then send me a revised invitation. In a couple of days, he returned the invitation. With a couple of very minor corrections, it was ready to go. He got it!

I had been able to teach how to write benefits.

3) How to Write for a Social Security Seminar

I decided to test the concept myself.

I Googled “Financial Advisor” + Seminar. The first thing that popped up was a lame announcement of a Social Security seminar. “Financial advisor hosts Social Security and finance seminar.” No bullet points. Possibly someone attended.

Here’s what I did.

Went to Amazon. Searched for “Social Security.” Read reviews for the first three books. Took some notes. Wrote these benefits:

Learn the basics as well as some advanced strategies.

Shed light on a complicated topic.

Clear up confusion on when to take your benefits.

Revealed: Medicare premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

What to do if you make a mistake.

Untangle Medicare and its intricacies.

4) What to Learn From Book Reviews

Reviews are really answers to a survey, aren’t they?

You could do a very expensive survey and ask, “What do you want to know about Social Security?”

Or, you could go to Amazon and read book reviews. There they tell you what people who found information were looking for.

It’s magic.

This blog post is certainly not a complete course on writing seminar invitations. We’re only dealing with Amazon magic tricks and bullet points.

Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I didn’t strongly recommend: develop your invitation before you develop your handout and your slides.

The invitation tells you the topics for your seminar.

Once you know your topics, then you develop your handout. Now develop your slides to illustrate the most important points of in your handout.